Winded
by A Frequent Blue Moon
Summary: Its been six years since the fourth shinobi war and Naruto, along with Yoake, Uta and Hinata, is on Team Mouse, under Sarutobi Asuma. There may be more between the blonde Jinchuriki and his ANBU captian. Slow progression, first fic, Will be Naruto/Asuma so don't like don't read. Rated M for later chapters and language.
1. A New Mission

The sun beat down upon the broad back of Sarutobi Asuma, the golden rays reflected off the flowing river next to him causing a magnificent light show on the water. Asuma smiled lightly as he noticed the pineapple shaped hair poking out from the long reeds on the bank of the river. He swiftly and silently crept up to the black spikes, taking out a flash tag as he did so. "I swear if you do anything with that I will kill you" the deep voice came from the head of hair. "aw. Your no fun anymore Mr ANBU General." Asuma replied with a playful smirk. The man lying in the reeds sat up and looked at Asuma with a hint of humour in his black eyes. "Well at least I can still get the drop on my students, Old man." I smirked at my once, and sometimes still, lazy student. "ahh, but at least I don't have a wife that will punch me every time I swear." The pineapple headed man scowled at that. "I'm allowed to swear" he said defensively. "Sure you are Shika-chan" the Sarutobi chuckled a bit at the colour the black haired ANBU General went. "I am" he almost shouted, "OK then go on say fuck" Asuma replied

"But she always finds out" Asuma laughed outright at that, his mirth gleaming through his brown eyes. "Shiho-chan sure seems like a handful, I mean you've been complaining about her ever since the end of the war." Asuma said jokingly. Yamashiro Shiho and Nara Shikamaru had first gotten together after they first met before the Pien attack as it was now dubbed. Back then Shiho was a budding genius in the KCS, Konoha Cryptanalysis Squad, and Shikamaru a high level chunin who wasn't motivated enough to become a jonin. Asuma laughed as he thought about his student when he was a genin. Shikamaru looked at him with a questioning glance "what's so funny?" he asked "Oh I was just thinking about when you were a cute little genin and your ambitions set so low. But now look at you, ANBU General, married to the head of the Cryptology department, a baby looming ever closer. But yet I think I preferred the genin you." Asuma finished glancing at Shikamaru "and you know why?"

"No" Shikamaru answered "Why?"

"Because he wasn't covering up that bald spot with his pony tail" Asuma finished with a flourish and a grin. Shikamaru stuck his middle finger up in Asuma's direction. "I swear Naruto's rubbing off on you" Shikamaru said as Asuma fake cried at his students rude hand gesture. Naruto and Asuma had been placed in the same ANBU squad for over a year now ever since Asuma had gotten his Captainship and ANBU Trainee team to mentor. Toad, Butterfly, Goat and Fox were placed under the captainship of Mouse, Sarutobi Asuma himself. After the passing of the seat of Hokage from Senju Tsunade to Hatake Kakashi ANBU went under a slight change in the form of non-obvious references to personality in the names of the ANBU. Hence the name Mouse for Asuma, Butterfly for Naruto, Goat for Hyuga Hinata and Toad for an Inuzuka named Yoake and Fox for Uta Shimemura the grandniece to the late Shimemura Danzo.

There was a comfortable silence as Shikamaru and Asuma stared at the clouds, occasionally pointing and making comments on the similarities the cloud hold to everyday things like: Shiho with her baby bump and Pakkun doing Kakashi's paperwork. Asuma pointed yet again, Shikamaru had long since closed his eyes after becoming bored, "Hey a messenger hawk" Asuma said. "What kind of cloud looks like a messenger hawk" Shikamaru asked with incredulity laced into his voice, he cracked an eye open at Asuma. "No, I mean an actual messenger hawk. Who do you think it's looking for me or you?" Shikamaru sighed "I hope it isn't for me, I promised Shiho I'd be back before sunset so we could celebrate her brother's promotion"

"Oh, I didn't know Aoba was taking the Jonin exam" Asuma said with mild surprise as the hawk landed on the bank, it hopped over to Asuma and took off again. Asuma's eyes skated down the page, "Aw, got another mission I swear Kakashi just likes ordering me around." Shikamaru smirked at the disgruntled ANBU Captain, "But Asuma-sensei that's the best part of being your boss, now get to the Hokage, Mouse. This is your General speaking. Asuma straightened up and gave Shikamaru s cocky grin "Sir, Yes, Sir" he replied with a mock salute. Shikamaru chuckled and shook his head as Asuma sped away using the trees as a launch pad for massive leaps and bounds.

Two ANBU were standing in front of Kakashi's large desk. Ah, the perks of being Hokage he thought as he observed the black clad figures before him. He smiled under his mask as his eyes rested on Goat. Hyuga Hinata had done a lot of growing up since her sensei was killed by Hidan and Kakuzu. After a little pep-talk from Neji, Hinata's confidence sored along with her skill. She had completely obliterated Hidan with an inventive use of exploding tags and senbon. She had wrapped the tags around the senbon and using her precision aim she stuck them into Hidan exploding him into bits. She had become one of his best ANBU. One Kakashi himself would be extremely hesitant to fight. The other ANBU standing in front of him was a one Inuzuka Yoake. He was a strange one, he had brown, spiky hair like an Inuzuka but was built similar to Ibiki, towering above others in the room. His mother was from the Inuzuka's sister clan the Aburame and his father was the first cousin of Inuzuka Tsume, the head of the clan. His Father was somewhat of a prodigy when it came to the Inuzuka style of fighting surpassed only by Tsume herself and now Kiba. Yet, Yoake showed no ability in communicating with dogs like almost all the Inuzuka clan can, equally he showed no ability in controlling and communicating with Kikaichu the small insects used by the Aburame clan. He was like the perfect balance of Inuzuka and Aburame. Not too stoic but not too loud, not too cautious but not too brash either, until someone created a cross breed between a Kikai and a dog, Yoake would stay without a furry partner or a hive.

After Kakashi had shaken away the rather disturbing image of the young ANBU in the Toad mask carrying around a puppy sized Kikai on his head like Kiba did when he was younger, a figure came hurtling through the window closely followed by a second. The first figure stood up revealing that it was a black haired girl dressed in standard ANBU uniform with a tanto strapped to her back. She was holding a second mask from the Fox one resting on her face, she was waving it tauntingly in front of the second sprawled figures face "Uta, give it back" the figure whined "Tut tut, Naruto I've got my mask on, it's Fox now" Naruto pulled himself off the floor, he had aged well, from the eager sixteen year old at the end of the war to the strong twenty-one year old he is now. He like the others was dressed in a standard issue ANBU uniform without the mask, his baby fat had disappeared over the years leaving a strong chin and a handsome face. He had grown his hair out in memory of his sensei Jiraiya and his father Minato Namikaze, the fourth Hokage his strands now rested near his shoulders. "Uta, c'mon I need my mask" Naruto whined "Not until you admit I am faster than you" Uta teased "Never! I would have caught you if that old lady with the cheese wheel didn't get in my way." Naruto almost yelled. "Get in your way? Don't you mean you ran into her" Uta smirked as Naruto adopted the thinking pose as he contemplated what to do. His face lit up as he thought of an idea to get his mask back, "How about this I'll by you all the ramen you can eat" Uta snorted "No, I'm not a ramen freak like you, did you really think I'd say yes?" she answered. Through the mask Naruto smirked "No I didn't think you'd agree but that's why a summoned a clone behind you. The clone grabbed the mask from where Uta was holding it Naruto placed the mask on his face and turned to Kakashi who, unlike his teammates, hadn't blinked an eye at Uta and Naruto's antics. Hinata was shaking her head and Yoake was simply leaning against the wall looking at them with a soft smile. The team had become very close during their time in ANBU training; they lived together in an apartment in the ANBU Headquarters building to increase teamwork. "Hokage-sensei" Naruto said giving the silver haired Hokage a nod. Kakashi sighed, "Naruto, I've asked you to stop calling me that"

"Your right, I'm too informal for an ANBU-Hokage relationship." Naruto fell on to his knees grovelling in front of Kakashi. "Please don't chop off my head, Hokage-sensei-sama" He said in a mock terrified voice. Kakashi simply sighed again although he was smirking under his mask. "Well, all we're waiting for now is your Captain. Come on Asuma, I know you're there." Asuma dropped through the window from his perch on the ledge, "Sharp as ever Hokage-sama, now what's the mission" Kakashi unfurled a scroll marked S-rank. "We have marked this mission as S-rank due to lack of information, truthfully this could just as well be a B-rank or even a C-rank" Kakashi said in a serious tone "The Akatsuki have been spotted again". Team Mouse collectively tensed. The Akatsuki had completely disappeared off the map after the war, in fact all crime stopped if only for a month. We were all basking in the peace that was present, but people again got restless, it didn't help that both Mizu and Iwa both lost their Kages in the battle against Obito and Madara. Tsunade lost her medical and de-aging jutsu due to damage to her chakra pathways; however her tiajutsu was still as strong as ever, Kumo came out strongest but also with the largest dent in their forces and Suna lost none of importance. After a year reports of Shinobi of nearly every village were abandoning their villages and leaving everything behind. The immediate worry was if we had another Orochimaru on our hands, however another six months passed with nothing happening, but then stories and rumours of black cloaked ninja with red clouds adorning them started to crop up. Evidently the left over forces of the Akatsuki were rebuilding their group. After the war none of the main members were still alive, even Taka had gone their own ways, Karin had been assassinated in her cell by a still loyal Root member who decided that she would not besmirch Danzo's name with his underhanded dealings with Orochimaru. Suigetsu is rumoured to have been living in wave country. Juugo was captured by Konoha a month after the war, he had been contained and his chakra sealed and was currently a civilian in the village and had a baby with Ayame the daughter of Ichiraku Teuchi the ramen stand owner. Naruto had met with Juugo and sat in silence just staring for an hour until he finally asked "Will you make her happy?" Juugo so startled by the sudden question had blurted out "Yes, I love her" Naruto had nodded and simply said "I know". The child, Named Teuchi after Ayame's father who had died the year before, had not gained Juugos strange abilities. They were now living above Ichiraku's which had been upgraded from a Ramen stand to a full blown restaurant famed for its ramen. Sasuke had died during the war. These new Akatsuki seemed to be doing nothing but just appearing in different places and then leaving.

"Are we sure about this" Asuma asked "it's not like when we went all the way to snow country and it was just a snow leopard" Kakashi nodded grimly "Yes, confirmed sighting in Wave Country. They were seen on The Great Naruto Bridge four days ago" Kakashi threw the scroll at Asuma "If it's Akatsuki observe but don't engage unless necessary. Is that clear?" He aimed this question at Naruto who had been hunted by the Akatsuki and Hinata who held a certain hate for them ever since the death of Kurenai. "Yes Hokage-sama" the ANBU team chanted obediently "Well" Kakashi said "you better get going" Kakashi said falling easily back into his lazy attitude.


	2. A Bonding Session and a Little Outburst

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto nor am I getting any money out of this in any way. If I did own Naruto he'd unfortunately probably be dead by now since I like to keep things believable, I mean seriously he should have died so many times by now. But anyway you didn't come here for the ranting you came for my other undoubtedly brilliant talent. I'm so modest aren't I? Well on with the story.

P.S. I'll try not to waffle too much in these bits.

The fog was thick, the cool air pressing in around the five ninja was almost like a large grey blanket covering everything, none could see further than four feet in front of them barring Hinata due to her Byakugan. Team Mouse came to a halt when a muffled yell came from behind the fox mask as Uta stubbed her toe on another rock, "Fuck, Kami's shit that's worse than a kunai to the gut" she sat on the ground and rubbed her foot. "There's no point continuing now" Asuma stated as the rest of the team sat on the damp ground "The Akatsuki member, if there is one, won't be travelling in this. Now Hinata How far are we from crossing into Wave" Hinata blinked under her mask focusing her Byakugan, "About ten minutes of running, the bridge is just four miles North East of this point." She answered. "Ok, Naruto we need a fire if we are staying for the night, Uta, Yoake set some traps just in case. Oh, and a sound barrier seal" Uta and Yoake jumped away to set up defences under the guidance of Hinata while Naruto took a small scroll from his bag and opened it. A blue fire about the size of Pakkun popped into existence after a few seals from Naruto, Asuma smiled at the ingenious pocket fire seal invention of Naruto's. After the war Naruto had flung himself head first into seals and found he was a genius when it came to understanding and deconstructing seals. The ability to understand seals was unfortuantly not enough, collective years of neglect and being taught the wrong thing had finally caught up with Naruto. On the training trip with Jiraiya the focus was on getting stronger physically and gaining real world experience. There was almost no focus on increasing mental ability, perhaps the odd philosophical point or battle tactics against Uchiha but nothing else. Hell Naruto did more reading on that trip than he had done in his entire life, granted it was poorly written smut but it still counted. Even in the smut there were words he just couldn't read. Thanks to all of this Naruto had become a Chunin before he could read or write properly. Needless to say when this came out there was a furious Tsunade, an embarrassed Naruto, a shame filled Hokage for not noticing during his years as Naruto's sensei and some unemployed academy senseis that had been fired for their neglect of a student over ten years ago.

Asuma was pulled out of his fond memories of Tsunade, despite now looking every bit her age, punching a particularly bitter Academy Sensei through a wall by Naruto nudging his arm, "Hey Asuma- senpai are you Ok?" Naruto asked concern evident in his voice. Asuma looked at Naruto quizzically, not that anyone could see through the mask except Hinata, "Of course I am Naruto, why wouldn't I be?"

"Well you know Akatsuki must be bringing up memories of Kurenai it must be hard"

"I do miss her, but I have no doubt that Hinata misses her much more. When Kurenai came into Hinata's life it was like Hinata had found a mother."

"But senpai didn't you … er… weren't you and Kurenai- sensei you know… together?" Naruto asked confusion dripping from every word. Asuma laughed "We weren't together. That was just a rumour she was dating Genma when she died, and anyway, um, I sort of, well-"

"Swing the other way" Yoake cut in from behind them "We all knew Naruto, how did you not? You're so dense sometimes"

"Hey!" Naruto yelled indignantly. "Oh come on Naruto" Hinata said "You can't deny that you can't pick-up on anything like that, I mean up until Sakura made a joke about how I used to faint every time you spoke to me, you didn't even know that I had fancied the hell out of you."

"I just thought you were ill or something" Naruto muttered defensively. The rest of tem Mouse laughed at the response. "It doesn't bother you, does it?" Asuma asked "What, of course it doesn't bother me, I mean I am Bi." Noises of surprise came from the rest of the team. "What, since when?" Uta asked pointing a finger at Naruto. "I thought everyone knew" Naruto said as he noticed the surprised air around his teammates "I mean I lost my virginity to Kotetsu and then I dated Karui when we were both proctors for the Chunin exam a couple of years ago in Kumo. I thought you knew that."

"No we didn't" Hinata answered "and is this Karui the same Karui that you let beat you up when they were after Sasuke?"

"Yeah, she apologised for that during my stay and to make up for it she bought me a drink and the one thing lead to another and we slept together. Actually theres this pretty funny inside joke in Kumo, to ask Dodai, you know the guy with the rubber jutsu for a condom when you're gonna have sex." The rest of Team Mouse was dumbfounded about why they hadn't heard about any of this before "What? Why are you looking at me like that" Naruto asked when the laugh he was expecting from his story didn't come and he noticed they were staring at him "It's not like I'm the only one that doesn't tell you stuff, I mean the only reason I know about Hinata's 'special friendship' with Morino Idate is because he was staying at Sakura's before he got his own place and I ran into him when I visited Sakura and he mentioned a certain pale eyed girl with the name Hinata. And about 'the great fun they had last night'" Hinata was beet red when Naruto mentioned what Idate had said while Uta guffawed and Asuma and Yoake chuckled. "Well it seems that our teamwork is not up to scratch, we don't even know each other's personal lives." Asuma stated with a grin on his face "Well since we have time right now we are going to try a team building exercise." I'll get the ball rolling" Asuma said not allowing any time for anyone to object "Yoake are you in a relationship with anyone, got anyone bedroom buddies close at hand?"

"Senpai, are we really going to gossip?" Yoake asked incredulously with a small blush donning his cheeks "Yes because we as a team need to know everything about each other or our teamwork will not be the best it can be, now answer the question" Asuma said with a smirk. Yoake sighed "Fine, yes I am in a relationship"

"With who?" Naruto asked eagerly "A girl I met during the ANBU exams" Yoake answered "she didn't make it but she's trying again this year"

"What's her name?" Naruto said "Tenten" Yoake replied that little statement caused Naruto and Asuma to laugh loudly and Hinata to giggle, "Have you met her team yet?" Asuma gasped out between laughs. "No" Yoake answered bewildered by their reaction to his girlfriend's name. "You're in for a real treat" Asuma said causing another round of laughter from him and Naruto. "Yeah agreed Naruto you'll find them most 'Youthful'" causing yet more laughter. "Anyway, Senpai, it's your turn" Naruto said clapping Asuma on the back "Do you have any hidden romances, lost loves or first times you want to share?"

"Well no secret romances I'm afraid and definitely no lost loves, I guess it's first times." Asuma answered having no qualms about sharing. "hmm, let me think" Asuma adopted the thinking pose "Oh, yes, of course, it was Genma back when we were nought but horny teenagers, if I remember correctly it was only a few days before the Kuuybi reached the village. We were scared shitless, so we did the only thing a normal hormonal teen would do, shag. Enough about me though" Asuma turned to Uta, eying her lazily at the same time wondering whether she'd kill him for asking anything, he said "So Uta we've heard some of every ones sexual lives. Your turn" Uta hesitated before muttering "I haven't had any" Team Mouse could almost feel the blush through the Fox mask of the young ANBU as the silence after that statement permeated the air. "What not even a kiss" Naruto asked. Uta shook her head. "Well I was brought up in ROOT, no time for dating."

"Wow" Hinata said "bummer. Ok Uta when we get back we're finding you a man. Or at least a quick shag" Team Mouse stared at Hinata not expecting her to say something like that "What?" she said "So you lot can say those things but an heiress can't! If you want I can talk like Neji"

"No that's ok Hinata" Asuma said snapping out of his reverie "We don't need another stoic Hyuuga. Ok team that concludes our bonding session, bedtime. Yoake I'll be waking you in a few hours for second watch" Hinata, Uta and Yoake all found somewhere to sleep and arranged themselves comfortably, but Naruto stayed sitting watching the fire. "Come on Naruto you've got the early watch you should get some sleep." Asuma said through his mask. "Asuma-sempai… can ask you something?"

"Yeah sure, what is it that's troubling you?"

"Well if Akatsuki is back does that mean they're still after the Bijuu?"

"Well it's possible" Asuma answered "Why do you ask?" Naruto continued to stare into the blue flame for a minute or so before he said anything else. "I hope they aren't after the Bijuu, I don't want to go through that again. I've got too good a thing going for it to get disrupted like that. I mean there's Team Mouse and Kakashi-sensei. I've gotten acknowledgement from the village, Sakura's happy and there is peace between the villages. I know its peace that won't last but can't it go on for a bit longer without fucking Akatsuki fucking stirring things up again. I meant the Bijuu aren't even all accounted for yet, the Rokubi only just cropped up once in Sea country before disappearing. I mean can't we just not have this unbelievably large pile of shit hit the fan just yet. I mean fuck. It's just so un-fucking-fair. I don't want to be hunted again by those fucking shits. The people around me get hurt and I don't want that to happen to anyone, especially not yo-"Naruto cut himself off before completing the sentence. Asuma was surprised at Naruto's outburst and quite befuddled as to why Naruto had singled out him but let it slide at the moment and focused on reassuring Naruto. "Now Naruto since the main members of the Akatsuki were killed in the war I doubt that these leftover Akatsuki are strong, if anything they are probably just informants rather than actual ninja. S-ranked ninja don't just grow on trees you know and even if they were S-ranked we'd just kick their arses and sent them back to whatever messed up plane of existence they came from. Okay" Naruto looked up from the fire into Asuma's eyes with a smile on his face. "Yeah I suppose we are awesome like that"

"Yes I suppose so. Now Naruto it's nearly..." Asuma looked at an imaginary watch on his wrist "…ten past later and way past your bedtime, off you go now." Naruto grinned and stood up making his way to soft patch of ground "Thanks Asuma" he said before closing his eyes. Asuma smiled his heart warming with the thought that he had been able to cheer up his blonde ninja.

Ok, I just want to explain myself a bit:

Naruto has worked for peace and is kind of pissed because Akatsuki is still there and is still royally fucking up his life. He is in love with Asuma, the when, how and why will be explained later. Asuma is in love with Naruto but being quite dense about his own feelings does not realise it or if you prefer it he loves Naruto and doesn't want to admit it to himself because of his morals or something like that. I really don't mind why he doesn't know he loves Naruto is open to interpretation. The point is he loves Naruto but doesn't realise it and will often refer to Naruto as 'his' without realising it.

Aaaaaah phew I'm glad I finished that Chapter, I wrote it once at about four in the morning after not having any sleep. After I went over it I decided that sleep deprivation and writing Naruto fanfics do not mix well for me. Unless it's a good idea to put Naruto in a relationship with Japanese Hitler from that race filler episode with Idate in it. If you've seen it you'll know who I mean. Any who I have a bit of homework to catch up on so yeah hang tight and I'll try to get the next chapter out to y'all as soon as possible. You're all the best. Oh and super special ultimate thanks to Silvermane1 who was the first ever person to review one of my stories. So a big yay to him/her/it. So I'll see you all real soon. P.S. I just realised how creepy that last bit sounded.


	3. A Stoney Face and an Unexpected Relative

The Shit Hit The Fan

* * *

Things had gone to shit fast. We had crossed the Great Naruto Bridge disguised as merchants, our chakras hidden from any possible Akatsuki, even Naruto's gargantuan sea of chakra was blocked from prying sensors by a partial chakra suppression seal. Crossing the bridge had been uneventful, Hinata had seen nothing with her Byakugan, and no one had sensed anything wrong. We had reached the centre of the village again the atmosphere was clam and nothing seemed to be wrong, under our cover of merchants, we had even sold some toys to the local children (the toys being some of Naruto's clones in a solid transformation that were ordered to dispel the moment they were not being observed).

We travelled through the centre and towards the outskirts of the village, we had reached the wooden houses on the very edge of the forest before it happened. An explosion tag had flew into one of the wooden carts full of toys, the chakra imbued paper sinking into the wood before the cart, being one of Naruto's clones, poofed from existence and the tag exploded. Being the closest, Hinata and Naruto were thrown into the forest by the explosion, I could see the two merchants that I knew to be Naruto and Hinata rotate in the air before Yoake, Uta and I were flung through the wall of a nearby house.

The unfortunate woman cleaning her dishes at the time had screamed and ran through the house yelling for her husband. I turned to see if Yoake and Uta were alright and seeing them both crouching still in their henges, I righted myself into the crouching position before signalling to stay in henge and jump out into the pyramid formation in case of a secondry attack. We leapt into action and flew through the hole in the wall into a triangular formation onto the now wrecked street. We heard heavy thumps as an eight foot tall figure draped in shadow came out from the alley in the direction the tag had come from.

That brings us to the present. We watched as the large figure slowly moved into view, the thing was covered in head to toe in rock. It looked vaguely human and was two metres wide. As it walked the rock coating it's body ground together in a scraping sound causing dust to fall from its joints. The rock man's face had no features apart from a ridge of rock forming a grim frown. I pulled out a kunai henged to look like a dagger as we were still in disguise I yelled at the rock creature using an unfamiliar voice "Why did you try to kill us" The mound of rocks did not reply, instead it brought what could loosely be called a hand from its side and pointed in our directing. I could feel chakra emanating from the rock man in front of us, "Move" I hurriedly said to the two behind me as I jumped to the left, the place we were just standing in exploded as pellets of earth, shot from the rock mans 'fingers', hit the ground with enough force to make metre wide craters.

We dropped the henge as soon as we realised he wasn't going to be conned into believing we were just wandering merchants. Uta was now on the right of the craters and Yoake and I were on the left. The rock creature moved its arm causing more dust to fall from its elbow and shoulder and aimed at Uta. "Fuck" I heard Uta say before the spheres sped towards her only to slam into a wall made from a thick crust of rock. I turned to Yoake who had his hands clasped together in the Snake seal.

"I could use a little help senpai" he muttered before stamping on the ground and saying "Doton: Earth Dragon bullet". A dragon made from rock broke from the wall in front of Uta and opened its mouth and fired a good sized bullet at the rock man. I sped after it forming my own seal.

"Katon: Fire ball jutsu" I called. The earth bullet crashed into the rock man causing it to skid back slightly before the fire broke over it searing against its brown flesh. The rock man now blackened by the flame stood before them before opening its sad looking mouth and spewing out a pile of small rocks that writhed and convulsed in the air before dropping to the ground taking on the rough shape of a dog with no features apart from the downturned mouth.

* * *

I heard the air rushing past my ears as Hinata and I swivelled in the air before falling onto separate trees in crouched positions, I felt heat before I could see what was causing it and leapt out of the way just in time to see a huge ball of golden fire passing where I was crouched moments ago. Chakra fire is normally orange or red not gold, I thought. I looked to where I could now feel a reservoir of chakra that was not there just moments ago. "It's a woman" I heard Hinata say behind me "About 5'6, no noticeable kekkai genkai, huge amount of chakra almost as large as Hokage-sama's, weak physical build but I wouldn't assume anything."

"Anything to suggest clan or origin?" I asked, feeling the experienced ANBU seeping into my voice. I heard an intake of breath from my partner. "Goat? What is it?"

"Butterfly...Naruto...she...she has red hair" No, that isn't possible, I thought but I knew that Hinata wouldn't lie about it. I felt a warmth pool in the palm of my hand and slide down my knuckles, I raised the hand to find my it curled into a fist and blood pouring through my fingers. "Uzumaki" I muttered to no one. I steeled my resolve, this was our enemy I can't let feelings get involved.

"Uzumaki Naruto" I heard an angelic voice call "I know you and your little friend are there, I can sense the Kyuubi's chakra pouring from that nifty little seal on your belly" The woman chuckled, her laugh equally as beautiful as her voice, it rang through trees from the clearing like wedding bells. It reminds me of The Old Man and Iruka-sensei, I thought nostalgically, and why do I smell ramen. The feeling suddenly disappeared, I blinked a couple of times before realising that I was teetering dangerously on the edge of the branch we were crouched on.

"Aw" I heard the melodic voice grumble "I guess your survival instincts are just too strong" I could practically hear the pout in her voice and I couldn't help but let out a girlish squeak at the adorableness of my enemy. Oh right she was my enemy. I should probably fight her. I turned to Hinata only to see that she had her hands clasped under her chin and had hearts in the unfamiliar green eyes of her henge. "Goat?" I called, I snapped my fingers in front of her when she didn't respond. She blinked much like I had and turned to face me. "Yeah? What?"

"You sort of went all fangirlish for a moment there" I felt like laughing when the henge blushed. "I did too, I think it has something to do with her voice." I said, Hinata nodded at that "It would be foolish to continue hiding if she can sense the kyuubi, I think the only course of action is to not give her time to speak. We strike fast and hard. Got it?"

"Got it, combination attack fourteen good for you?" I answered. She nodded and gathered chakra in her hands. "Naruto" the sweet voice called through the trees "Sweetie stop playing around and come down from those trees, you might hurt yourself" I squashed the sudden urge to simply slide down the tree and scamper towards the voice. Simultaneously Hinata and I both flew through the air landing in the clearing that the voice poured from. "There you are" the red headed Akatsuki said, she giggled at the hard looks across our faces.

"Are you angry at me? Look I'm sorry about trying to make you both fall of a tree and anyway I didn't hurt either of you." I felt my resolve waver for a second before it steeled yet again as I reminded myself that she was our enemy. Hinata's resolve however did falter as she began to walk towards the woman with her arms outstretched for a hug. I stuck my arm out stopping Hinata in her tracks, she looked at the arm for a moment before blinking and gritting her teeth as she remembered were she was. I glanced at her making sure she was alright, she nodded her head slightly. I raised my hands in a familiar way and hundreds of brown haired, black-eyed merchants appeared in the clearing and all of them flew at the Akatsuki woman in the middle of the swarm.

* * *

The dogs were unfortunately not as slow as their creator. They leapt about in a seemingly random manner as pellets of earth flew everywhere. After the first attack we found that Katon jutsu did nothing to the rock man or his dogs and Doton pushed them back slightly but did nothing else. Uta's Raiton: Senbon had destroyed one of the dogs before it reformed, even my Fuuton jutsu did hardly anything and suiton was just useless apart from maybe slowing the dogs down. In conclusion we were fucked.

I had my trench knives out, the blades a familiar weight in my hands. I dodged the stone dog as it flew towards me, grim mouth open, earthy teeth bared. I pushed wind chakra into the blades and stabbed at the large hound, the sharp point of the fuuton sword extending from my knife sinking into the stone creature before stopping. I wrenched them out and kicked the dog back, I threw my trench knives in the air and moved through a short sequence of seals before aiming at the still falling blades and firing a beam of lighting at them. The chakra conductive metal absorbed the lightning chakra and crackled with blue energy. I leapt in the air again as the dog barrelled towards me. I caught my knives and angled towards the stone dog, I crashed into it sinking the blades deep into the main body of the stone hound. A spider web of cracks stemmed from the blades still in my hands, the main body of the dog crumbled away leaving a lump of stone, the limbs and the stone head.

The remnants of the creature were still but I could already see the broken rocks sliding to an unknown centre point. I had to act fast. From one of the pockets on my ANBU uniform I slid five seals out. I slammed four of the squares of paper in a square around the slowly reforming dog. I placed the last seal in the centre and slammed my hand down onto it pumping chakra into it. It glowed for a moment before the slowly reforming dog disappeared in a puff of smoke along with the four seals placed around it. I stared at the fifth seal for a moment in case it hadn't been contained properly before picking up the piece of paper and sliding it back into my pocket.

I stood and surveyed the street-turned-battlefield. Yoake, realising his doton was doing nothing for his offence, had pulled a two handed stone axe from the ground and had begun a complicated and very strange taijutsu fight with the other two dogs the man had spat out. Uta had her tanto out, it was slathered in lightning and the sad faced, stone man she was fighting had numerous holes where her lighting jutsu and her tanto had pierced the tick outer layer. Both Yoake and Uta where panting as they moved fluidly around their opponents and I knew it was only a matter of time before they made a mistake. I heard a yell as a stone dog sunk its teeth into Yoake's arm before being batted away by a sharp jab with the handle of the stone axe. I jumped towards them, my trench knives crackling with electricity.

* * *

My clones and I had been doing well to keep the red-haired bitch's mouth shut, the problem was that she was definitely no push over even without her voice. Golden fire was being blasted out of her mouth destroying dozens of clones at once. The fire had almost hit me a few times before I substituted for one of my clones. The woman wielded a suiton whip made from water that was tinted gold, it was slicing through the clones occasionally flattening into a shield and deflecting various jutsu and kunai.

That should be long enough for Hinata to prepare, I thought. I sensed her nearby, I got a flash of memories of Hinata telling me what to do. I pushed chakra into my feet and barrelled towards the unguarded back of the female Akatauki. A rasengan formed in my hand, the blue ball swirled as I flew towards her. As expected she turned toward me and leapt backwards to dodge the attack. As she was propelling through the air Hinata smashed into her from where the clone had thrown her. Her hands were engulfed in fiery blue chakra shaped like two lionesses heads, her arms were covered by the lioness's body and the two tails were intertwined and flicked out from between her shoulder blades. The red-headed woman was crushed by the force of the chakra covered fists smashing into her, dust flew all around the clearing obscuring my view.

* * *

There was an explosion of chakra from the forest, Naruto! I thought. The stone dogs froze before crumbling into dust, I turned towards the stone man who was also frozen in place, I saw Uta take the moment to attack and slash at the man's neck with her lightning covered tanto, dust and bits of rock fell to the ground, the rocks crumbled to reveal a familiar form.

"Naruto?!" I exclaimed, readying my blades in case of genjutsu. "Asuma?" Naruto asked. Naruto blinked twice confusion spreading across the Naruto's face "Oh shit, I'm a clone if he substituted with me he might be trying to get the Boss and Hinata-chan." The clone leapt into the forest, I followed after it quickly. Only one thing was spinning in my head, Naruto don't die.

* * *

OK. I'm quite happy with that. I just want to tell you the basic abilities of my OCs:

Yoake:

Extremely strong Doton affinity (so strong that he is unable to do more than E-rank jutsu of another element)

Weapons master

Some genjutsu prowess

Can create any weapon from any Doton based material

Uta:

Assassin (one shot kills, silent killing, Ect)

Raiton affinity

Uses Suiton and Katon jutsu as well

Kenjutsu master

So anyway review. I love you all bye. :D


	4. A Peek Into The Future and Sakura's Help

All I could feel was pain. White hot pain. I writhed against the hands holing me down. I could hear someone whispering in my ear but it just sounded like noise. I felt my throat burn as another scream tore through it. A green light filled my vision before my world went black.

* * *

"Right now he's sedated" a voice stated from my left. "But he's still in a lot of pain and will most likely feel it once he wakes up. We can keep him comatose but we will have to get the permission of his next of kin and unfortunately Iruka-san is away on a long term mission in Suna. He cannot be reached at the moment and the crisis is in need of a decision so it falls to you to make the decision as his Captain." I tore my eyes away from the prone blond on the bed, that just moments ago had been writhing and screaming in agony. My vision blurred, for a moment I thought time had caught up with me and I had lost my good eyesight before I realised it was tears that were blurring my vision and causing the colours of the room to melt together. They spilled down my face in hot streams, carving a path through the grime and mud caking my face.

"I'll let you think it over" said the voice pity lacing every word. I heard the door shut, the soft bang of wood colliding with wood penetrated the air. Naruto. I thought as my eyes once again returned to the body on the bed. I picked up the bloody hand that was resting at the Jinchuuriki's side and clutched it in my own two hands. But it wasn't right, his hand was too limp, too lifeless. I sat there for a few minutes, just waiting for him to open his eyes and make a stupid joke about how much of a baby I was being. I don't know how long I sat there but before long loud sobs were pouring from my mouth. I sat for some time openly weeping. I leant forward and placed my mouth next to his ear. "Naruto, please don't leave me here please just be ok" I whispered to him before, without thinking, planting a kiss on his blood coated cheek and leaning back still clasping his hand. The door swung open from a particularly hard push and a pink haired woman rushed into the room panic written on her face before stopping and taking in the scene. I saw her eyes travel to the hand still resting in mine and up to my tear streaked face. I placed the hand back onto the hospital bed and attempted to wipe the evidence of my break down from my face despite knowing all I was doing was smearing the blood and dirt layered on my face.

"Hello Sakuraa-san" I said, my voice void of emotion. "I suppose you've heard about Naruto" Her eyes pulled away from the mess of blood, mud and tears smeared cheeks and to the bed where the blonde lay scarily still. "Is he...?" Sakura breathed out, her voice swimming with fear. "No." I answered "He's just sedated...I've been told to make the decision to place him into a coma or not and we both know that he may not wake up if he is placed in one" Sakura nodded "Yeah..."

"What should I do?" I hated that my voice sounded so pitiful. Sakura seemed to evaluate me for a moment and then say "Put him in a coma. Naruto's a fighter and we both know that he is one of the hardest people to kill, I don't think a coma could keep him down for long".

"But what if he doesn't wake up? It would be my fault and I don't think I could live with that. They cant put that kind of pressure on me they're demanding me to choose one of my most precious people's fate. How can they really expect me to do that? HOW? TELL ME? HOW?" I was yelling by the end of my rant. I could feel the stinging tears to well at the corner of my eyes. "Look, Asuma-san, look at Naruto." I turned my head to face the broken figure on the white sheets of the bed. I could feel the tears threatening to spill over. "What do you see?" Sakura asked. I looked over the body and winced "Pain caused by me" I replied. "No. What's lying there is a friend, a warrior and most of all a survivor. He has lived through so much through his life and he has survived. I think he can survive anything. This? this isn't even in the top twenty things our knuckle-head has gone through. He survived Jiraiya's attempts to convert him to perverseness. I'm sure getting through this is nothing more than walk in the park to him."

I had never really had extended contact with Sakura before now. Of course I had seen her around as Ino's best friend and Kakashi's student but I had never really spoken to her. I could now see why Naruto had idolised her for quite a while. She was grounded. It was hard to find a ninja that was like that. They were always stuck in the past or dreaming of the future. But Sakura seemed to be able to pull me, practically a complete stranger that was having a breakdown back down to earth.

I nodded and smiled gratefully at her. I rubbed my grubby hands on my cheeks, attempting to remove the fresh tear tracks that had been made during Sakura's pep-talk. "That's just making it worst...here use this" the medic chided in a firm tone as she pulled out a towel from the cupboard next to the bed. I took the towel from her hands muttering a "thank you" under my breath. She nodded and said "Do you want me to tell them that you want to induce the coma" I nodded, the uncertainty of my decision rising in my throat again. I felt sick. It probably showed on my face because Sakura laid a hand on my shoulder before saying "Don't worry he'll be fine"

* * *

This chapter isn't as long as the others. but it's mainly to set the foundations for Asuma/Sakura friendship. Sakura might be a tad OOC but this is how I have made her to be so deal with it.

I know I didn't continue from the cliff hanger last chapter and next chapter will be all about what happened so stay tuned.

Lastly I'm not sure who to pair these characters with or even if they have a relationship at all. so please tell me who you think they should be with and any other pairings you want to see.

Who should be paired with:

Uta

Kiba

Kakashi

Lee

Iruka

Neji

Konohahmaru

So, yeah review.

I love you all. Byes


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